Thursday, September 29, 2011

“Spatchcock” refers to the method of cutting open a whole chicken, so that it sits flat in a pan, or on a grill. However, it wasn’t always the highly amusing verb it is today.

Originally, it was a highly amusing noun used to describe a small, young chicken. Since these tender birds were usually butterflied to cook faster and more evenly over the coals, “spatchcock” became the culinary term for this technique. So, if you use a small, young chicken like I did, then you’re actually spatchcocking a spatchcock, which is about the most entertaining answer ever to the question, “What are you doing for dinner?”

Above and beyond how fun it is to use in casual conversation, the technique really does work beautifully for grilling a whole chicken. Once you remove the backbone, and set free the sternum from its covering of cartilage, you'll have a bird that will cook quicker and more evenly. It also looks pretty damn cool.

Anyway, I hope you pick up some spatchcock soon, and give this whole spatchcocking thing a try. I’ll be showing a recipe I did using this technique in a future video, so stay tuned for that, and as always, enjoy!

this video came at the most funny time, i was watching Emeril yesterday on the food network channel and he had the exact same chicken style cooking on a stove but under hot bricks, i was saying to myself that's an intersting way to do cook chicken but i wish he'd show us how to open up a chicken like that.

Today what did i see on Foodwishes ? the best technique ever !! explained in the best way by the best Chef Ever.

I have spatchcocked many, many birds over the year. Sometimes I'd remove the keel bone, sometimes I'd do the "palm smash" to flatten the bird out. I have not seen your trick of just releasing the keel bone so I'll give it a try.

Does the starburst indicator come on regular fryer sized birds or just cornish hens? (ha ha)

I spatchcocked a spatchcock today and impressed my parents and in-laws for Father's Day. Thanks for the technique, it's a keeper! Everyone loved how moist the chicken was. I grilled it. I put all the burners on Med except the one under the chicken, that was on low. Seasoned with S&P and that was it! The cutting out of the backbone was a little icky, but dissecting stuff in A&P helped me get over my squeamishness.